Ring Around the Rosy
by Penonymous
Summary: A one-shot of the plague returning to Invader Zim's universe, and the consequences of it spreading. It also explains the song 'ring around the rosy', the true meaning of the lyrics for those who don't know already. ONE-SHOT!


**I took a break from writing my other two stories to release this sad one-shot. Geez, it seems that my writings are either depressing, creepy, or random and silly. Why is that? :/**

**DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING in the invader zim universe. NOTHING!**

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"Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy! Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" a young voice sang out from ruins the shade of teal green. A wall crumbled nearby, but the owner of the voice didn't notice. It had eyes only for the pink rubber pig in front of it, blackened a bit with age and extreme heat at one point. Shells of cars sat on silent streets, as if someone might use them at any moment. The shiny, young robot squealed in happiness when the piggy squeaked with his tight grip.

"You my BEST friend!" he announced, his voice the only sound heard for miles around. "Well, besides for MASTAH! He gonna come back soon! Puppy head promised!"

Everything outside was the same general color, a dull gray landscape beneath a smoggy red sky. But those cyan eyes never noticed as things fell to ruin around him.

"The tall guys said that doom was happening! I LIKE DOOM! I'm not gonna sing the doom song, because master wouldn't like it if I was doing it when he comes back," the robot explained to the toy.

Ashy, gray snowflakes drifted down from the sky, borne not of clouds, but of something far more sinister from the recesses of your mind. Memories repeating themselves, widespread panic, mass chaos ending with nary a whisper.

"But mastah didn't say I couldn't sing that rosie song!" Gir exclaimed happily. "I gonna sing it again, piggy! Try to sing along!"

The overburdened graveyards silently made their victims known, all of the headstones sharing a similar end date.

"Ring around the rosy!" Gir screeched.

The first signs of the end were of the skin, red circles, or rings, appearing on those infected. They dismissed it as a rash of some sort, a few kids staying home from Skool, nothing very noticable. The Irken had noticed, though, and quickly became concerned, isolating himself from the other children to try to protect himself.

"Pocket full of posy!" Gir squealed happily.

Lymph systems filled with blood, and a foul odor would emanate from the infected as a result. In embarrassment, hoping to hide it, they carried sweet-smelling flowers around to mask it. One human started to get suspicious just like the Irken, distancing himself from others. If he saw anyone with flowers in the Skool hallways, he walked in the opposite direction. This couldn't be right. Outbreaks like this don't happen in modern day times. Our technology is too great, our medical advances extreme.

"Ashes, ashes!"

Constant sneezing everywhere was too much for the Invader obsessed with preventing germs from ruining his mission. He left to the Massive with a promise to come back when the doom was over. The human had watched the retreat with grim silence, knowing that it took more than just a simple sickness to cause his enemy to flee. As predicted, the alien took the virus with him when he returned to the general population. It seemed to affect Irkens even more substantially, and mass cremations took place simultaneously on both Earth and Irk, hoping it would somehow slow the spread. Ashes drifted down from the sky, both past and present. Esteemed leaders on both planets hid themselves, hoping to wait it out somehow. But for how long? Could they last for that extended period of time in hiding?

"We all fall down!" Gir finished up with a shriek of happiness. That line echoed through the deserted playgrounds, the emptied schools, the ruined base. It even made its way to a child's house, monitors flickering at the last screen it had pulled up before its owner vanished.

_'It was everywhere, absolutely everywhere. The sneezing, the coughing, the rashes, all of it was the Plague with a vengeance,'_ it read. _'That old nursery rhyme everyone knows and sang at one point has actually come true. Cure? Unknown. Maybe it will die out. Maybe when Zim left, he found a cure at his home planet. But did he die? Will he come back? If he does, I'll be waiting, dead or alive.'_

"I gonna sing it again!" Gir decided with a grin, staring at his rubber piggy.

"Ring around the rosy!"

_'There has to be a cure, there just has to be.'_

"Pocket full of posy!"

_'Humanity can't just die out. There's too many of us!'_

"Ashes, ashes,"

_'Unless, maybe, Zim left for a reason. Did he recognize it? Will he die? Will _I _die? Is anyone going to ever read this? I'll try to find my own safe haven, survive so that at least an example of humanity still exists. Unless the nursery rhyme ends truly. How did it end again? Oh, that's right.'_

"We all fall down!"

_'We all fall down."_


End file.
